Carless in Vancouver: Vancouver Island Circle Route Tour

This is a map of the route we took, except for the Malahat

A few weeks back Andrea and I took a bike tour of southern Vancouver Island. We are fairly new in to our relationship and yet decided it would be a good idea, Andrea didn't hesitate for a minute at the suggestion of the tour and that is always a good sign.

DAY 1

An early morning rise [4am] got us out to pick up Andrea's car mechanic Walter, who was going to work on Andrea's van whilst we were going to be away. We arrived at the ferry terminal with a slight drizzle for the 7am 90 minute trip to Swartz Bay.

Having made this trek previously a few years back I knew of the various places one could get lost, so we made the our first stop at Sidney by the Sea. The rain gained a little in strength as we left Sidney causing us to pull over and put on rain pants. As we got closer to Victoria the rain let up somewhat and by the time we hit the Blankinsop Trestle it was dry and sunny again. We had a short stop over for lunch at hippy-ist cafe in Victoria before making a short trek around the BC legislature and the back over the Johnson St bridge on to the Galloping Goose Trail. Before heading east ward to Sooke we stopped off at the Community Bike shop near the junction of Lochside and Galloping Goose Trails and found a fender for Andrea's front wheel. [I had foolishly left my back fender at home] but could not find one to fit. The Lochside trail had given us a layer of mud already.

Heading out toward Sooke on the gentle slope of the old trail bed was easy enough. However, as I expected I found the going somewhat slow in comparison to the road, but we were in no rush at all. The Galloping Goose Trail winds outs of Victoria and then passes through Colwood and Langford and through some really nice country around Matheson Lake. Around this point the drop off got a little steep, fine for trains in the day but a bit daunting for this cyclist. The GG does take a significantly different route than Hwy 14 or any other road for that matter thus giving us some quiet cycle time.

Coming in to Sooke the trail obviously had lost a few trestles from it railway days. The steep gravel inclines and declines are well marked however, after spending so much time on the flat it was a little too much and I stalled out on the incline and flipped myself over on to my right side. Nothing was broken or even bleeding, but it did remind us of how remote we would be going and not to take chances.

Finally arriving in to Sooke we rejoined the highway for a brief time. The road between Sooke and Victoria is well used by commuters and the road was busy with little or no shoulder, a sharp contrast to the previous hours spent on the Lochside and Galloping Goose trails. A warm bath awaited us at the Welsford B&B and our hosts Gail & Ray graciously gave us a ride in to town for dinner and we walked our tired bike riding muscles back to the B&B for a good night's sleep.

Total: 66km

DAY 2 Route

DAY 2

Starting out at 9.15am this turned out to be the best weather day of the four days, it also turned out to be the steepest and somewhat unexpectedly so. The trek from Sooke to Jordan River was most pleasant despite being on the highway with little or no shoulder. The only drawback was the first big hill of the trip at Shirley, for some reason this hill just about killed me and Andrea was up at the top waiting for me. I think I had my pacing all wrong or something, my heart felt like it was exploding and my head was all mental. But having my love waiting for me pulling me up the hill was a major plus. The stop at Jordan River was much needed and the juxtaposition of some big guns firing over on the American side was not lost on the otherwise tranquil setting. After climbing out of Jordan River, and regained my hill climbing cadence; Andrea's hill climbing was excellent and I found my spot just ahead of her just perfect physically and mentally.

Jordan River

Some amazing views awaited us giving us a sense of how high was had climbed. As we got further away from Jordan River the country got a little wilder; some of the areas had been logged as far back as 1902 and some as recent as 1980's and a few were planted in 1962 and 1963 and were the same age as Andrea and I; nice to meet trees your own age. The road had been recently paved and was not as rough as expected and the road was pretty well our own after Jordan River, with no logging trucks and just the odd motor cyclist.

From my scans of Google streetview I knew we had at least one steep climb ahead however, it was the second drop and subsequent climb out of a creek that caught us off guard. The road was so steep at this point we had to dismount and push the bikes up the hill, no wonder we had not seen a logging truck all afternoon !!! The weather was at least in our favour and as we had expected we swore at the hill - here it is from google street view. Shortly thereafter we were blessed with recently paved [last few weeks] smooth blacktop all the way in to Port Renfrew. The ride in to Port Renfrew was long and steep and thankfully downhill, made all that much safer with the new surface. We cruised in to Port Renfrew at 5pm.

Port Renfrew has just 300 residents and is the southern gateway to the West Coast Trail. The host of our accommodations Connie turned out to be an above knee amputee just like me. Our spartan hiker hut was adequately comfortable and we dined in fine style across the street at the Coastal Kitchen Cafe. In the evening we walked out on to the pier at the Port Renfrew Hotel and sipped a Bailey's n coffee on the pub deck only to have rats run over our feet, I felt that much closer to mother nature. We did try to rescue a snake from the middle of the road in Port Renfrew but it was too far gone and when we looked for it the next day it had died peacefully at least.

Not to be confused with the
Northern Soul classic

Total: 74kms

DAY 3

We knew day 3 would be the most remote and steepest of our days, turns out we were wrong on both accounts. Based on the premise if logging trucks can navigate it so can we, the hills on day 3 proved to be less challenging than those on day 2.

Given we had a 60km trek we set out a little later at noon after breakfast. The road out of Port Renfrew is pleasant enough, however after a few km the roughness of chip set was irritating to say the least. The drizzle started up as we got closer to the mountains but it stayed light enough to be with out any rain gear.

The logging trucks were heavy and noisy but easily avoided by pulling over out of their way - the drivers seemed courteous enough, slowing to down to pass us. Certainly way more traffic on this road than highway 14. We estimated there was at least a 400 meter climb on this route, which is basically the same as riding up to SFU and down again. The major incline is two switchbacks at around the 20km mark, turned out they were easy enough to climb and once over them there was a narrow climb to the peak and then the start of the descent to Lake Cowichan.

amazing mountain climbing woman

This area has been decimated by clear cutting with little or no replanting, vast areas on the eastern side are just nothing but bush. No doubt this area was in accessible in the past is now open to public viewing, particularly urban cyclists like us who consider clear cutting the blight on the landscape it is. Nonetheless the views of the Robertson Creek valley were marvelous. The descent was long and in some parts resurfaced with what we later found out was a surface from the Lake Cowichan Hwy that had proven nasty for car windshields - always good to recycle !!!

As we approached Mesache Lake the road took a detour due to bridge repair. We did not like the look of the dirt road so we headed over to the bridge anyway and were able to cross the creek without the bridge, saving us some serious detour nastiness with trucks, gravel road and added kms at the end of our day, there are some true benefits to owning a bicycle.

a scene from "The Stand"

On our later than expected 6.45pm arrival at the Lakeshore motel in Lake Cowichan we found our "reservation" had been given to some German tourists. This was initially kind of irritating after such a long ride. Andrea and I had recently watched the episode of Seinfeld with the car reservation scene.

However, our errant hostess graciously found us other accomodation, gave us $20 for our trouble and we talked the new hosts down to $80 for the night. Turns out it was in our favour to be transferred over to Kidd's B&B. Our new host was excellent and their basement suite was luxurious in comparison to our previous night. We made our way in to town for some excellent grub at the D&D Irish Pub irony would have it that we sat next to four German tourists; it was then back to the B&B for a bath a good nights' sleep.

Total: 60km

DAY 4

Our final day on the tour had us starting off with a tasty breakfast hosted by the Kidd's. We had a number of route options for the second half of this day and it was good to get a map with some level of detail to see the best options. By 9am we were back on the road passing through the small town of Lake Cowichan and then on to Cowichan Lake Rd which was suitably scant of automobiles and had a gentle decline towards Duncan.

finding the road at Kidd's B&B

We saw some beautiful farmland through the Cowichan Valley and as we got closer to Duncan the traffic increased accordingly. Even for urban cyclists that deal with cars all the time, being on the road for two days with out hardly any cars makes for an even more irritating time in a town like Duncan. We decided to take the more westlerly route south towards Mill Bay, turning at Craig Street in Duncan then on to Allenby Rd along the river then on to Koksilah Rd back in to the farm land.

Andrea finds a new friend

Timing was of the essence for this day as we needed to catch two ferries. After taking the scenic route through Cowichan Station, where the only hill climb of the day rose to say hello, we took the Trans Canada Highway from Koksilah Road to Mill Bay.

After the slow going of the back roads, the Trans Canada was an easy 25k with lots of shoulder and gusty wind assistance from passing vehicles. It was about 230pm by the time we hit the village of Mill Bay. We stopped off for a Chai Latte in the local strip mall only to notice the rain coming across the bay toward us. By the time we got to the 410pm ferry the showers were doing a good impersonation of rain.

The trek from Brentwood Bay to Swartz Bay was the most unpleasant as the rain came down hard and the road seemed never ending. The hill out of Brentwood Bay seemed overly long and the traffic seemed overly eager to knock us off the road, but we eventually made it back to a soggy Swartz Bay by about 615pm to catch the 7pm ferry back to Tsawassen. We had dried off enough on the ferry to pleasantly meet up with Walter the mechanic and head back in to Vancouver to conclude our trip. The rain was coming down hard by this time.

Total: 77km

In conclusion, this was an amazing tour. We saw some wonderfully beautiful things and he feasted on what nature and humans had to offer. The really amazing part was doing it with Andrea, who turns out to be a bit of a mountain goat bike rider and a more amazing person than I had I already thought so highly of. This trip had a real potential of being a breaking point in our relationship, however we were both up for the tour and more importantly both up for the tour together, the experience has brought us that much more closer together.